EFCC withdraws fraud charge against Ajudua

A Lagos High Court, Ikeja, on Tuesday discharged socialite Fred Ajudua of an alleged $1.69million fraud case instituted against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The presiding judge, Justice Kudirat Jose, discharged Ajudua because of the commission’s inability to provide key foreign witnesses to give evidence in court.

‎The socialite and his co-defendant, Charles Orie were first arraigned before Justice Joseph Oyewole in 2003 for allegedly defrauding two German businessmen – Remy Cina and Pieere Vijgen of $1.69 million, but jumped bail in 2005 until his reappearance in 2013 after an arrest warrant was issued by Oyewole.

The duo were alleged to have conspired with Rasheed Adekunle, Abisola Fawehinmi and Stephen Joiner, who are still at large to commit the crime between 1999 and 2000.

‎At the resumed hearing on Wednesday, counsel to the EFCC, Mrs. E.A. Sanusi, told the court that the commission’s inability ‎to provide key foreign witnesses was because some of them refused to come to Nigeria to give evidence.

She told the court that some of the principal witnesses had cited the Ebola outbreak as one of the reasons for their inability to come to the country to give evidence‎.